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Governments Are Basically Inept

The real injustice behind the legislation that has come about as a result of the war on drugs is that it hardly ever succeeds in doing that which the politicians tell us it is meant to do. It doesn’t catch criminals. Of course, that such laws were ever brought about in the first place underlines the fact that, even by their own admission, governments are basically inept. What exactly was Big Brother saying when he told us that he must transform a number of related financial transactions into illegal behavior? He was admitting his own inability to catch criminals in the act. As Big Brother was not clever enough to actually catch people in the process of selling drugs or committing fraud or plotting terrorist activity, he had to resort to trying to stop them after the fact when they tried to wash clean the profits from such activity.
The fact that the public allowed such legislation to go through unhindered rather than tell Big Brother to go back and do his job properly tells us much about the persuasive rhetoric of politicians. It also points yet again to the real reasons behind the war on drugs. It is only by examining the actual effects of all of this newly introduced legislation that we come to understand who the real victims are. What do all of these new laws do? Who are they meant to stop? Who needs to be afraid of them? To discover the real answers all you need do is cut away Big Brother’s snake-oil rhetoric and look closely at what effects these laws have produced on day to day life in all developed countries. To discover the real answers look at who suffers. Look at whose money is being taken away and at who is forced to turn up in tax court.

Do you see any drug barons there? Of course not. Money launderers only need fear these new laws if they don’t know how to hide. Which is exactly why these laws never affect drug lords or big time swindlers. These shady underworld characters know how to hide and how to use fall guys, middle men and ghosts. They know how to keep such a low profile that no one knows their true identity or where they live. The fact of the matter is that all of this new legislation fails miserably in its attempt to stop drug traffickers, corrupt kingpens, gangland bosses or top white collar criminals. Professional crooks are far too clever to get caught in such bureaucratic traps.
Do you think Pablo Escobar wet his pants when Germany enacted reporting requirements a few years ago? Do you think that drug barons were sent home quivering in their boots when Luxembourg asked banks to start reporting “suspicious” transactions? And who do you think got hurt when France decided that from now on cash deposits would be subjected to extra scrutiny? No matter how hard bungling governments try to stop crime they will never succeed with paper.